The Case Management Society of America (CMSA) recognizes a specific week annually as National Case Management Week. The recent theme was “Case Management: Exceptional People. Exceptional Care.” The week is designed to honor the dedication, compassion, and patient care outcomes achieved by hospital case managers in healthcare organizations.
The CMSA defines case management as a “collaborative process of assessment, planning, facilitation, care coordination, evaluation and advocacy for options and services to meet an individual’s and family’s comprehensive health needs through communication and available resources to promote patient safety, quality of care, and cost effective outcomes.”
The American Case Management Association (ACMA) provides additional context for the role of the case manager. According to the ACMA, case managers serve as advocates who help patients understand their current health status, what they can do about it, and why treatments are important. The role also involves collaboration with other care providers (such as nurses, social workers, physicians, other practitioners, caregivers and the community) to drive communication, facilitate care along a continuum, and coordinate resources.
Case managers practice in health care organizations and agencies throughout the health care continuum. Their position may be wherever health care is delivered such as acute care, home care, and hospice care. They may be working with patients at home or in a healthcare facility. Case managers can also be employed within the health care insurance industry. Case Management goals include the achievement of optimal health, access to care and appropriate utilization of resources, balanced with the patient’s right to self-determination.
As a case manager constantly navigates the healthcare system on a patient’s behalf, a virtual care platform can help case managers in the following ways:
- Greater Convenience: A communication platform will enable a case manager to conveniently perform regular assessments of his/her patients, without requiring transportation and travel-related expenses. By allowing case managers the ability to use video to communicate with patients via any device, anywhere, virtual care technology provides case managers with more convenient options in terms of when and where they check-in with patients, engage patients in their treatment, educate patients (and/or families/caregivers) on their condition, and guide patients as to their next steps.
- Better Alignment: Technology can help a case manager better collaborate with the greater care team across the continuum of care. By conducting video calls with the care team, a case manager can work with the broader team to reinforce the goals and expected outcomes for patients. With real-time verbal and visual communication, case managers can facilitate needed changes to the overall plan of care. For example, the case manager can use a video call to collaborate with social services to define patient’s needs and assists in plans for social service care. The case manager can also connect with care providers to ensure that that treatment plans are appropriate for patients while coordinating treatment planning / benefits with the patient’s insurance or other payers.
Case Managers serve a critical role in managing the care for the patient on an individual basis by providing what a patient needs, when needed. Virtual care technology is transforming case managers’ delivery of patient care by providing more options in terms of how, when, and where case managers are able to serve as navigators in the healthcare system. Technology-driven approaches to care will help drive greater satisfaction for case managers, care teams, and the patients themselves.